The currency of Turkey is one of the currencies of the emerging economies in the world, and last October Bloomberg Agency ranked the Turkish lira as one of the worst performing currencies in the world. Of course, the classification of these agencies has become based on political reasons more than economic ones
The history of the currency of Turkey
The history of the currency of Turkey dates back to 1927 after the announcement of the founding of the (modern) Turkish state by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. For more about the emergence of the Turkish lira and its historical transformations: The emergence of the Turkish lira and its historical transformations to this day. Here is the evolution of the Turkish lira to this day.
The first version of the Turkish lira was printed in 1937
The first version of the Turkish lira was in Ottoman letters, and then it was replaced by a Latin letter currency in 1937. This version included four denominations, namely 5, 10, 50 and 100 Turkish Lira and remained in circulation until 1944.
The second version of the Turkish lira was printed in 1944
It was printed in Britain and Germany with a picture of Ismet Inonu, a Turkish president at that period. The smallest was 50 piasters and the largest was 1000 Turkish liras, and each Turkish lira at the time was equal to 0.77 US dollars.
The third version of the Turkish lira
The third version of the Turkish lira was printed in 1947 in America and the small denominations were withdrawn from circulation, making the lowest denomination in circulation 2.5 Turkish liras.
The fourth edition of the Turkish lira
The fourth edition of the Turkish lira was the smallest denomination, it was printed in 1952 in Turkey and the image of İnönü was removed after the end of his rule and the image of Ataürk was placed on the coins again.
The fifth version of the Turkish Lira
The fifth version of the Turkish currency issued in 1966 was unchanged only the 2.5 denomination was withdrawn from circulation.
The sixth edition of the Turkish lira
The sixth edition of the Turkish lira was printed in 1980, and due to the deterioration of the Turkish economy, new denominations of 10 thousand, 20 thousand, 50 thousand and 250 thousand were issued.
The seventh version of the Turkish lira
The seventh version of the lira was printed in 1995, when denominations of 5 thousand and 10 thousand were withdrawn and a denomination of 1 million was issued.
The eighth version of the Turkish lira
The eighth version of the Turkish lira was printed in 1999, when the 50 thousand and 100 thousand notes were withdrawn from circulation and the 10 million notes were issued.
The ninth and final version of the development of the form of the Turkish lira was printed in 2005 and six zeros were deleted from the currency, so that the smallest denomination was 5 piasters and the largest was 100 Turkish lira. In 2006, and in 2009, a denomination of 200 Turkish lira was issued.
The New Modern Turkish Lira
The Turkish lira occupied a prominent place among emerging currencies and in 2011 the US dollar was equal to 1.48 Turkish lira.
The modern Turkish lira is in denomination of 200 lira, which is the largest denomination of the modern and circulating Turkish currency. The following is a graph showing the decline in the value of the Turkish currency against the US dollar
The beginning of the deterioration of the exchange rate of the Turkish lira
The decline of the Turkish lira began sharply in 2013 in the month of May. The reasons for the deterioration of the Turkish lira were initially reflected in the turmoil in Istanbul, which is known as the “Gezi Park events” where the lira fell to 1.75 to the dollar at the beginning of the events, and until the end of 2014 reached 2.27 to the dollar And its decline continued until March of 2016, bringing the dollar exchange rate to 2.55, i.e. within two years, the Turkish lira lost about 45% of its value.
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The night of the failed coup in Turkey on July 15, 2016, the exchange rate of the Turkish lira fell sharply and lost 4% of its value to 2.94 against one US dollar.
US sanctions and the crisis of Pastor Andrew Brunson between the United States of America and Turkey in the summer of 2018, which caused a sharp decline in the Turkish lira after a tweet by US President Trump imposed sanctions on Turkish goods, so the exchange rate of the Turkish lira against the dollar reached 6.9, but improved again after the crisis was resolved to reach the exchange rate The Turkish lira at the end of 2019 to 5.85 against the US dollar.
The Corona crisis, the Azerbaijan war, and the tension in Turkish-European relations caused the exchange rate of the Turkish lira to decline in the beginning of November of the year 2020 to 8.5 Turkish lira per dollar, which called on the Turkish leadership to make changes, including the resignation of Finance Minister Berat Bayrak and the Governor of the Central Bank of Turkey to respond The Turkish lira is improving and its exchange rate after these decisions reaches 7.6 per US dollar
. But with the beginning of 2021 and the return of tension to the international arena and the region and the economic setbacks that the region and the world as a whole are experiencing as a result of the Corona epidemic and the follow-up to the general ban and total closure in Turkey and many surrounding countries, the Turkish lira continued its decline, bringing the price of the Turkish lira today to record levels against the dollar, the euro and gold.
Turkish lira price chart against the dollar until today A chart showing the timeline of the price of the Turkish lira against the dollar and the exchange rate decline from the beginning of 2015 until April 2021